Your Setup:

Finding your balance point

by: Marc Lefebvre

Having your gear setup up properly is very important for the ultimate
control in all conditions. A poorly setup board and rig will perform badly as
well as being hard to control. Some signs that you are poorly setup are
spinout, tailwalking, difficulty staying upwind, difficulty planing, and if
one or both arms are getting over tired from pushing and pulling on the boom
While many of these signs can be attributed to other problems as far as
technique and equipment but your setup can contribute greatly. Unfortunately
sometimes it requires good technique to determine what the proper setup is for
your board and rig. Lets assume for this article that your technique is good.

There are basically five areas that you can tune to get your setup set
properly; fin, mast track, harness lines, boom height and strap position.

First you need to determine where you want to place your straps. For early
planing and heavy weights it is good to place them into the forward position.
For speed and tighter control in turns, place them into the rear position.

Once you have the straps into position you can place your fin into the fin
box. The position of the fin is determined by the placement of the rear
strap. It should in line with the rear screw of the rear strap. If you do
not have any adjustability in your fin box then don't sweat it and pop your
fin in. The leading edge of the fin should never precede the rear strap
screw, this can and will induce spinout.

Now it is time to set the boom height on your mast. A good starting point
is to set it at the same height as your collar bone. This will cover about
70% of the conditions. For lighter wind, you can set them slightly higher so
that you can put more weight on your booms for earlier planing, for heavier
wind you can set them slightly lower. The boom height effectively determines
how much weight is placed on the board, and should never be placed lower than
the sternum and higher than your chin.

Your harness lines are probably the most important factor in getting
everything in balance. While on the beach locate the center of effort of your
sail by finding the balance point on your boom. Set your harness lines
equidistant from this center point. This is a good start but will need some
tweaking once under power. Sail with them in this position and feel the pull
on each arm. The pull should be equal on each arm. If the pull is greater on
your front arm then move the lines toward the front, if the pull is greater on
your back arm, move the lines toward the back. The adjustment should not be
more than an inch in each direction. In addition the harness line separation
should be no more than shoulder width. The closer they are the more sensitive
the rig will feel and you will be able to sheet it properly.

Harness line length has been a big issue of debate and all I am going to
say on that subject is that they have to be long enough to not depower the rig
to windward while under sail and short enough so that your arms do not get
tired and your butt shouldn't slap the water. The adjustment I use is about
from the tip of my pinky to the tip of my thumb. Thats about right for me.
Everyone else may be different.

Finally, once all else is setup you need to set your mast track. Your mast
track should be set such that the center of effort of your sail falls at the
midpoint of your straps. If this is set properly you should have equal
pressure on both legs while in the straps. If your front leg has more
pressure (called front loading) you need to move the mast track back,
if your back leg is loading more, move the track forward.

Well now your are set and ready to sail. This may seem like a lot to do
before sailing but do it once and you are set for the life of your equipment.
If you get a new board or new sail you will need to do it all over again.
Write down your adjustments for the different conditions and keep a log. It
is the only way to truly find your balance point.